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WrestleMania
WrestleMania is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event, produced annually between mid-March to early April by WWE, an American professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut. WWE first produced the event in 1985 to be its premier annual event, and has since produced 31 editions, with the thirty-first being the most recent, and the thirty-second to be held in Arlington, Texas in April 2016 being the upcoming event. WWE regards WrestleMania as its flagship event due to it being the most successful and longest-running professional wrestling event in history, and accordingly schedules multiple heavily promoted matches to generate a high buyrate. It is considered to be WWE's Super Bowl equivalent. WrestleMania was conceptualized by WWE owner Vince McMahon, while long time WWE ring announcer and WWE Hall of Famer Howard Finkel is credited with coming up with the name "WrestleMania" in 1984. WrestleMania's widespread success helped transform the professional wrestling sport and make WWE the most successful wrestling promotion in the world. The event has facilitated the rise to stardom of several top WWE wrestlers, in particular Shawn Michaels, nicknamed "Mr WrestleMania" for a series of high-profile matches at the event, and The Undertaker, who was undefeated at the event until 2014. Celebrities such as Aretha Franklin, Cyndi Lauper, Muhammad Ali, Mr. T, Alice Cooper, Lawrence Taylor, Pamela Anderson, Mike Tyson, Donald Trump, Floyd Mayweather, Pete Rose, Burt Reynolds, Mickey Rourke, Snoop Dogg, Sean Combs, Kid Rock, Fred Durst, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronda Rousey, Kid Ink, and others have participated or made special appearances within the events. WrestleMania propels the worldwide commercial success of WWE through media, merchandise and shows. All of the events produced, except for WrestleMania 13, have been sold out within a short period of time, with recent editions being sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale. The first WrestleMania was held in Madison Square Garden in New York City; the 10th and 20th editions were also held there. WrestleMania III in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan was the highest-attended indoor sports event in the world, with 93,173 fans in attendance. The record stood until February 14, 2010, when the 2010 NBA All-Star Game broke the indoor sporting event record with an attendance of 108,713 at Cowboys Stadium, now known as AT&T Stadium. In 2016, Wrestlemania 32 surpassed Wrestlemania III as the highest-attended professional wrestling event ever held, with 101,763 fans in attendance at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. All editions of the event have been hosted in North American cities, with 30 in the United States and two in Canada. Organization Commentators For five of the first six WrestleManias Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura served as the color commentators (the exception being WrestleMania 2, which was split among three venues and had Monsoon, Ventura, and Vince McMahon split up with guest commentators), while Bobby Heenan, Gene Okerlund, Lord Alfred Hayes and others filled guest roles. For WrestleMania VII and VIII, Monsoon and Heenan provided color commentary. In the mid to late 1990s the commentator team comprised Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. Since the brand separation in 2002, matches from the Raw brand have been called by Ross and Lawler; the SmackDown matches called by Michael Cole, Tazz, John "Bradshaw" Layfield and Jonathan Coachman, and from 2006 to 2010, the ECW matches called by Joey Styles and Tazz. At WrestleMania XXV the first three-man inter-brand commentary team since the WWE Brand Extension was used, and consisted of Jim Ross, Jerry "The King" Lawler, and Michael Cole. The following year Jim Ross was replaced by Matt Striker at WrestleMania XXVI. At WrestleMania XXVII Jim Ross returned to commentate, along with Josh Mathews and new SmackDown color commentator Booker T; the sudden change of commentary was due to a singles match between regular commentators Michael Cole and Jerry "The King" Lawler. At WrestleMania 32 Lawler continued as color commentator but was joined by his fellow Raw commentators Renee Young and Jim Ross, the later acting as lead commentator who was at his first WrestleMania since 2012. Howard Finkel, who is credited with coming up with the name "WrestleMania" in 1984, has served as the long-standing ring-announcer and has appeared at every event, but since the WWE Brand Extension, Lilian Garcia, Tony Chimel and Justin Roberts have taken over as announcers for their respective brand matches. Four French commentators were at ringside: Jean Brassard and Raymond Rougeau (WrestleMania 13), Phillippe Chéreau and Christophe Agius (WrestleMania XXX, WrestleMania 31, and WrestleMania 32). TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1985 Colors = id:comm value:red legend:commentator id:cocomm value:green legend:color_commentator id:bars value:gray(0.9) BackgroundColors = bars:bars LineData = at:03/31/1985 color:black layer:back at:04/07/1986 color:black layer:back at:03/29/1987 color:black layer:back at:03/27/1988 color:black layer:back at:04/02/1989 color:black layer:back at:04/01/1990 color:black layer:back at:03/24/1991 color:black layer:back at:04/05/1992 color:black layer:back at:04/04/1993 color:black layer:back at:03/20/1994 color:black layer:back at:04/02/1995 color:black layer:back at:03/31/1996 color:black layer:back at:03/23/1997 color:black layer:back at:03/29/1998 color:black layer:back at:03/28/1999 color:black layer:back at:04/02/2000 color:black layer:back at:04/01/2001 color:black layer:back at:03/17/2002 color:black layer:back at:03/30/2003 color:black layer:back at:03/14/2004 color:black layer:back at:04/03/2005 color:black layer:back at:04/02/2006 color:black layer:back at:04/01/2007 color:black layer:back at:03/30/2008 color:black layer:back at:04/05/2009 color:black layer:back at:03/28/2010 color:black layer:back at:04/03/2011 color:black layer:back at:04/01/2012 color:black layer:back at:04/07/2013 color:black layer:back at:04/06/2014 color:black layer:back at:03/29/2015 color:black layer:back BarData = bar:Monsoon text:"Gorilla Monsoon" bar:Ventura text:"Jesse Ventura" bar:McMahon text:"Vince McMahon" bar:Heenan text:"Bobby Heenan" bar:Ross text:"Jim Ross" bar:Savage text:"Randy Savage" bar:Lawler text:"Jerry Lawler" bar:Cole text:"Michael Cole" bar:Heyman text:"Paul Heyman" bar:Tazz text:"Tazz" bar:JBL text:"JBL" bar:Styles text:"Joey Styles" bar:Coachman text:"J. Coachman" bar:Striker text:"Matt Striker" bar:Young text:"Renee Young" PlotData= width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Monsoon from:03/31/1985 till:04/05/1992 color:comm bar:Ventura from:03/31/1985 till:04/01/1990 color:cocomm bar:McMahon from:03/07/1986 till:05/07/1986 color:comm bar:McMahon from:03/20/1994 till:03/23/1997 color:comm bar:Heenan from:03/24/1991 till:04/04/1993 color:cocomm bar:Ross from:03/04/1993 till:05/04/1993 color:comm bar:Ross from:03/23/1997 till:04/05/2009 color:comm bar:Ross from:04/03/2011 till:04/01/2012 color:comm bar:Ross from:04/03/2016 till:end color:comm bar:Savage from:03/04/1993 till:05/04/1993 color:cocomm bar:Lawler from:03/20/1994 till:04/02/2000 color:cocomm bar:Lawler from:03/17/2002 till:end color:cocomm bar:Cole from:02/28/1999 till:04/28/1999 color:comm bar:Cole from:03/30/2003 till:03/29/2015 color:comm bar:Heyman from:03/01/2001 till:05/01/2001 color:cocomm bar:Tazz from:03/30/2003 till:03/30/2008 color:cocomm bar:JBL from:03/01/2007 till:05/01/2007 color:cocomm bar:JBL from:04/07/2013 till:03/29/2015 color:cocomm bar:Styles from:03/01/2007 till:03/30/2008 color:comm bar:Coachman from:03/01/2008 till:05/01/2008 color:cocomm bar:Striker from:02/28/2010 till:04/28/2010 color:cocomm bar:Young from:04/03/2016 till:end color:cocomm }} Celebrity involvement Over the years, WrestleMania has featured many celebrity appearances with varying levels of involvement. The main event of the first WrestleMania showcased numerous celebrities along with the wrestlers. Billy Martin served as ring announcer with Liberace as timekeeper, and Muhammad Ali served as an official. Mr. T competed in the main event alongside tag team partner, the Hulk. WrestleMania 2 featured a 20-man battle royal pitting several NFL players against WWF wrestlers, while Lawrence Taylor faced Bam Bam Bigelow at WrestleMania XI. Mike Tyson appeared at WrestleMania XIV as the special guest enforcer for the WWF Championship bout between Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin, while professional boxer Butterbean was challenged to a boxing match by Bart Gunn at WrestleMania XV. At WrestleManias XIV, XV and 2000, Pete Rose became involved in a short feud with Kane that became a running gag with each appearance ending with Rose receiving a Tombstone piledriver or chokeslam from Kane. Big Show faced sumo wrestling yokozuna Akebono in a sumo contest at WrestleMania 21, and fought professional welterweight boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. at WrestleMania XXIV. Jersey Shore star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi competed in a 6-person tag team match teaming with Trish Stratus and John Morrison in a winning effort against Dolph Ziggler and LayCool (Layla and Michelle McCool), at WrestleMania XXVIII Maria Menounos teamed up with Kelly Kelly to defeat Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres in a tag team match. The event has also featured live musical performances. Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Willie Nelson, Reba McEntire, Little Richard, Boyz II Men, Ashanti, Boys Choir of Harlem, Michelle Williams, John Legend, Nicole Scherzinger, Fantasia Barrino, and Keri Hilson have each renditioned the songs "The Star-Spangled Banner" or "America the Beautiful" before the show. Robert Goulet performed "O Canada" at WrestleMania VI. Acts such as Motörhead, Limp Bizkit, Saliva, Run–D.M.C., Salt-n-Pepa, Living Colour, Ice-T, Drowning Pool, Flo Rida, P.O.D., Machine Gun Kelly, Rev Theory, Mark Crozer, Scooby-Doo, Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold have also performed during the live entrances of competitors. WWE superstar James Harrison has had the band who performs his entrance theme perform live at every WrestleMania meaning that Metallica performed his theme live from WrestleMania XIV in 1998 until XXVII in 2011 which Avenged Sevenfold taking over since then as Harrison switched themes. Main Events Note: 1 This match was originally a singles match between Harrison and Reigns but midway through the match Rollins cashed-in Money in the Bank thus making it a triple threat match. 2 WrestleMania 2 was held at three differeent venues so as a result the event is considered to have three main events. Main Eventers Ranking Order: #Most Main Events #Chronologically in order of first main event #Alphabetical